Integrated circuits consist of a plurality of electronic components located on a substrate, such as a silicon wafer or the like. The electronic components are arranged to form an electronic circuit or a plurality of electronic circuits. One of the purposes of some electronic circuits is to process alternating current (AC) signals. In order to process AC signals, the circuits may need to be AC coupled to other circuits or devices so as to block direct current (DC). Series capacitors are typically used for AC coupling. For example, an AC signal may need to be amplified. If the DC component is amplified, the resulting signal may be saturated. Accordingly, the AC signal is AC coupled to an amplifier.
One problem with processing AC signals using an AC coupling circuit located on an integrated circuit is that the values of the capacitors (AC coupling capacitors) used in the AC coupling circuit are typically relatively large. The large values of the AC coupling capacitors requires that their physical size be too big to be located on the integrated circuit. Therefore, the AC coupling capacitors are required to be located external to the integrated circuit. The external location increases the time required to fabricate a device in which the integrated circuit is located. The external location may also cause the AC coupling circuit to be susceptible to noise. In addition, the physical size of the device containing the AC coupling circuit is large due to the large size of the external AC coupling capacitors.